


Treasure Trove

by paranoidangel



Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, Obscure & British
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:11:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoidangel/pseuds/paranoidangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For lost_spook's prompt in the Obscure & British Comment Fest: Chalet School, Mary-Lou Trelawney, her first dig turns up something <em>really</em> unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasure Trove

Mary-Lou was happy sitting in the dirt. Well, it was her first dig and someone had to do the boring stuff that no one else wanted to. Besides, she was here to learn from the more experienced archaeologists and she was sure they'd much prefer to teach someone willing to learn than someone who complained all the time.

Although she wished one of them was around at the moment. She'd uncovered something - her first find! - and there was no one to share it with. Never mind, she'd tell Verity when she got home, she'd be sure to listen. She hoped it was something big, although she'd settle for a coin there were already hundreds of.

As she'd been taught she uncovered the object slowly and carefully so as not to damage it. At last she could pick it up out of the dirt and examine it. It was a rectangular shape with a few buttons on one side. Across the top, in big letters, it said "SONY." Whatever it was, she was sure it wasn't something the medieval Europeans had. Nothing she had seen from previous digs looked anything like that.

"You found it, thank goodness for that. The professor was going to kill me."

A voice with an accent Mary-Lou recognised as being from London came from behind her, and she turned to see it belonged to a girl not much younger than herself. She was standing behind Mary Lou wearing a black jacket. For a moment Mary-Lou wondered if this was a test, but none of the people here dressed like that. None of the people she'd seen anywhere dressed like that.

"It's mine." The girl sounded guilty about it, as if she'd dropped something that contaminated the dig site, but this object was too well buried for that. "Can I have it back?" She reached her hand out for it.

For a moment Mary-Lou wasn't sure what to do or to say. If someone not with the dig asked for something you'd dug up, no matter how odd, should you give it to them?

"I, er, dropped it earlier," the girl explained, at Mary-Lou's hesitance. She smiled and Mary-Lou was tempted to trust her. If her story just made sense.

"What is it?" Mary-Lou asked, standing up, because being towered over did put her at a disadvantage.

"A Sony walkman." The girl grinned as she took it from Mary-Lou's unresisting fingers. "It plays music. It's going to be big in about twenty years time, just you wait."

Mary-Lou frowned as the girl turned and headed over to a blue box that hadn't been there earlier. By the box was a short man holding an umbrella, despite the cloudless sky.

"What did I tell you about leaving things lying around in the past?" His voice, with a Scottish accent, carried easily, although Mary-Lou didn't intend to eavesdrop. His tone suggested he was telling her off, but the girl just grinned.

"Got it back, didn't I?"

The man sighed. "Well, don't do it again."

Mary-Lou left the mysterious strangers to it and turned back to the dig, but the promise of objects from the past didn't compare with one from the future. If it really was from the future. Time travel? She was sure 'Bill' would say it was impossible.

She looked up as she heard footsteps and saw the man approach and stop further along the trench. "Try here," he said, pointing down. "X marks the spot." A grin and he was gone.

An X usually referred to treasure, but that was on a pirate map in a children's stories. It intrigued her though, and she might as well dig there as anywhere else.

X did indeed mark the spot and by the end of the dig Mary-Lou was hailed as its hero for finding the long-lost treasures they'd been seeking.


End file.
